In recent times, environmental concerns have significantly focused on automotive transportation. Vehicle pollution and its detrimental affects on the atmosphere have led to federal and state regulations directed to vehicle pollution control devices. More particularly, the automotive industry has been compelled by federal and state regulations to comply with increasingly restrictive vehicle emission requirements.
Concerns relating to automotive use are not limited to their impact on the environment. The ever increasing costs of manpower, insurance, and petroleum products such as fuel and oil are also or paramount concern.
Solutions directed to these concerns may be mandated by federal and state regulation, or may be initiated by the automotive industry as evidenced by the downsizing of engines by car manufacturers during the gasoline shortage of the late seventies. Additionally, individuals and business have attempted to devise and utilize methods to minimize the use of petroleum products, such as taxi sharing, carpooling, and the like. However, the fact remains that reducing the consumption of. petroleum based products has become a national, if not, global concern.
Minimizing the unnecessary use and or operation of vehicles is one approach, and when that approach is utilized by industries or very large companies where automotive use is integral to their operation, substantial financial savings and decreased adverse affect on the environment may be realized. Furthermore, when these approaches are directed to trucks, the financial benefits and decreased adverse affects are even greater. This is because trucks are generally equipped with very large displacement engines designed to pull the heavy loads associated with the anticipated fully loaded conditions that trucks experience during their service lives. Accordingly, they emit more emissions than cars, are less fuel efficient than cars and consequently cost more to operate. They are particularly inefficient when carrying a light load, such as when being transported without a body or cargo therein. Thus, individuals, businesses, and industries that utilize trucks have additional incentive to employ means and measures that reduce their overall usage, especially when such usage is unnecessary.
Perhaps the simplest method for transporting a plurality of vehicles while driving only one is via a ball hitch arrangement, which consists of a ball assembly mounted on the rear of the towing vehicle and receptacle assembly mounted on the front of the item to be towed. In such an arrangement, the receptacle is first raised and then dropped over the ball to achieve coupling. The ball may then be secured in the receptacle by additional securing means such as a pin, chain, padlock, or other manner. This and other similar arrangements achieve what is commonly known as flat towing.
The ball and receptacle type arrangement is not without deficiency. The arrangement provides a pivot point between the two trucks, e.g., at the ball hitch, which diminishes the control of both vehicles. Furthermore, since all the wheels of the towed vehicle are in contact with the ground in such an arrangement, steering control is further diminished, and front tire wire of the towed vehicle accelerated greatly. In general, towing arrangements which do not require all the wheels of the towed vehicle to be on the ground provide more steering control than contrary arrangements.
Truck cabin, drivetrain and frame assemblies are commonly sent from their manufacturers to a truck body company that installs the truck body and the auxiliary and optional equipment, paints the vehicle, and takes any other steps required to arrive at a complete vehicle ready for use. Accordingly, for the sake of clarity the terms cab or truck as used in appropriate context herein, may refer to the cabin, drivetrain and frame assembly of an otherwise complete and functional truck, but for the installation of the body. Truck manufacturers shipping such cab assemblies to dealerships and or end users have utilized a method to transport these items that enables the transportation of a plurality of such incomplete trucks while requiring only one truck to be operational, i.e., a lead truck which tows the remaining trucks in piggyback fashion.
This piggyback method of towing involves frontal structure of the truck to be towed being raised and coupled to rearward structure of the leading vehicle. Most commonly, the system employs a fifth wheel hitch, gooseneck or other type of receiver of the towing or lead vehicle to be coupled to the front axle of the vehicle to be towed, such front axle typically being known as a "dead" or beam type axle. The coupling may be accomplished via a depending pin assembly which is mounted to the front axle for receipt by the aperture of the fifth wheel hitch or by some other receiver on the towing or lead vehicle. In the case of a twin drive axle tractor, the fifth wheel hitch is located between the two parallel pairs of drive wheels at the rear of the truck, since this central location over the two wheel axles provides the adequate support for the truck's rated load. Placing the fifth wheel hitch rearward of the drive wheels could cause the lead vehicle to "pop a wheelie" under such a load, although this would not be the case under the load of the cab of the piggyback truck, which should be substantial less than the rated load. Using this towing location, the front wheel of the towed vehicle must be removed prior to coupling since they interfere with the rotation of the two parallel pairs of drive wheels. Thus, while a plurality of trucks may be towed in such an arrangement, the front wheels of all the trucks to be towed must first be removed.
These methods may also be used for smaller trucks which have only one axle of drive wheels. Similarly, the fifth wheel hitch is located near the single pair of drive wheels in order to adequately support either a truck or truck body, and likewise requires removal of the front wheels of the vehicle to be towed.
An improved method over those previously described is delineated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,867,468, incorporated herein by reference, as if more fully set forth. Therein, Paul, et. al., teaches an improved method which dispatches with the need for the front wheels to first be removed from the trucks that are to be towed. This feature is achieved by the mounting of a decking bar on the truck to be towed, across the chassis transverse to the longitudinal axis, in front of and above axle of its front wheel assembly. This decking bar is then engaged and supported by a saddle arrangement mounted to the towing truck's chassis, rearward of the fifth wheel hitch. Since the decking bar is located forward of the front axle of the vehicle to be towed and the saddle arrangement is located rearward of the fifth wheel hitch of the towing vehicle, the front wheels of the vehicle to be towed are now placed behind the two parallel pairs of drive wheels. This rearward location of the front wheels eliminates interference with the drive wheels and thus allows for the front wheels to remain on the towed vehicle. Unfortunately, patent '468 is limited to the towing of incomplete trucks.
While the above mentioned systems and methods allow a plurality of trucks to be towed, they do not aid in the transportation of multiple truck bodies. Nor can the benefits of such systems be exploited once truck bodies are associated with the trucks to be transported therewith. To the extent that a plurality of truck bodies can be transported simultaneously, present methods simply allow for a truck and truck body to be coupled to another truck body in tandem flat towing fashion. Therefore, the number of truck bodies that can be transported is limited to two truck bodies per lead or towing vehicle. Additionally, in such a configuration, the overall length of the entire configuration may present space, vehicle control, and insurance problems.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have an apparatus and method which allows a plurality of trucks with bodies to be transported simultaneously. It would further be desirable to have an apparatus or method which allows for the transportation of a plurality of truck bodies in little more space than is required for a single truck body.
The benefits of such an apparatus relate to the gained efficiency in being able to transport a plurality of truck bodies simultaneously. For example, significant savings in fuel and manpower cost associated with transporting truck bodies individually or in pairs may be realized by implementation of the present invention. Moreover, vehicle wear such as brake, transmission, and engine wear, is limited to a single lead or towing vehicle, with the exception being the tires of the vehicles being towed which are in contact with the ground. Furthermore, implementation of the present invention allows for drastic reductions in automotive emissions associated with transporting truck bodies individually or in pairs, in as much as a single engine is used in a situation more closely approximating its rated load, thereby improving its efficiency.
With the advent of truck rental companies, a need exists to be able to transport not only multiple trucks but also the multiple truck bodies therefor, since very often people rent complete trucks to go from a first location to a second location and then return the complete truck at an office of the truck rental company located at the second location. These arrangements are commonly referred to as one-way rentals. Eventually, the truck rental company will likely desire that the truck be returned to the first location. For example, a person may rent a truck in New York to transport items to Pennsylvania and may consequently drop the truck off at the rental company's Pennsylvania location. At some point, the rental company may need to get several such empty trucks back to New York.
Alternately, a truck manufacturer may simply wish to transport a plurality of new trucks, both trucks and truck bodies, from the point of manufacture to a dealership or end user.
Furthermore, shipping companies, as well as any other type of business which utilizes multiple trucks, may desire that their trucks be moved from one location to another. For instance, several trucks may be needed to deliver goods to a "single" location but then the empty trucks may have to return to a base location. It would be uneconomical and environmentally unsound to have the several trucks drive back to the base station separately when they could be coupled together and transported by a single lead or tow vehicle.
Furthermore, another possible concern of truck rental companies or other industries or companies which utilize a plurality of trucks is the space required to store these trucks when they are not in operation on a regular basis. The cost of real estate can be a significant factor in the operation of a business, and since the current trend of big business are toward downsizing and maximizing efficiency, the efficient use of real estate can play a vital role in these goals.
Indeed, the storage of trucks may conceivably require a great deal of real estate. Therefore, the ability to nest truck bodies within each other offers the option of drastically reducing land use requirements with respect to truck storage.
Nestable containers are also well known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,281,073, incorporated herein by reference as if more fully set forth, provides an Apparatus for the Transport and Management of Liquid Bearing Waste. Therein, Gesuale provides an apparatus which allows for the storage and transport of a plurality of such containers when they are empty. The invention comprises an open top bulk material bin which tapers in dimension from top to bottom so as to enable a number of empty bins of similar construction to be nested vertically within one another, in little more space than is required for the storage of a single such container.
Consequently, a need exists for a variation upon a combination of the above described devices and methods, having trucks and bodies constructed to facilitate the more efficient storage and transportation of a plurality of such truck bodies simultaneously than enabled by devices and methods heretofore known. Furthermore, it is desired that storage and or transportation of a plurality of truck bodies require little more space than is required for a single truck body.